Nov

WTF Does SGA Do?

About forty inquisitive minds gathered in the Diana Center Event Oval on Tuesday night to discuss WTF Barnard SGA actually does, since it knows that you don’t know the answer. Duchess of Doing It Renée Kraiem was there to find out whether SGA itself knows.

Amid the opening of Diet Coke cans and the enjoying of free Hummus Place, SGA President JungHee Hyun introduced SGA’s latest town hall as “a forum for students to actually come to us,” meaning SGA, “and ask us what we do.” To the relatively substantially filled room, Hyun expressed her hope that the evening would be “interactive,” and, more than anything else, interactive it was.

Following an introduction of all present SGA representatives that revealed that a notably large portion of the attendees were, in fact, SGA representatives, a strong, bold, and beautiful non-SGA-affiliated woman raised the question of the evening: “How much power does the most powerful person at SGA have to do what they want to do?”

Hyun’s answer set the tone of the rest of the evening—one that she should’ve set at the beginning of the town hall, a rare occurrence in today’s campus politics. “As SGA president, I really have no power without evidence of student support,” responded Hyun. “My power really comes from the students.”

“What we really mean by that,” continued VP of SGA Julia Kennedy, “is that we have the institutional organization to reach the appropriate administrators that students express concerns…so use us.” And use SGA attendees did, as the rest of the town hall was spent in table discussions about what it is, exactly, that students would like SGA to do.

This is an undeniably good thing. But, it’s a small thing. VP for Student Services Sarah Steinmann reminded her table discussion that “what people forget is that by virtue of paying student life fees and enrolling in the College, all students are the members of the SGA.” For that reason, at least, what SGA then does is apparently whatever you do. So do something—even if it’s only because you just remembered.